Wednesday, April 29, 2009

So its the 88th minute, you are winning 1-0 and the opposition crosses the ball into the penalty area, your goalkeeper calls for the ball but you choose to head the ball out for a corner even though there is no opposition player within 10 meters of you. From the corner you fail to mark the opposition player who scores.

Congratulations to Mehmet Topal for 15 seconds of no concentration which effectively ended any chance CimBom had, slim as it was, of catching Sivas.

So another game and another good kicking session for Galastasaray. A string of free kicks not given, more players injured because of it, Baros and apparently no desire on the part of the referees to protect players. Given the lack of fit and available players this was an experimental team to say the least, especially in defence where Hakan Balta had a poor game, which is unusual for him actually.

Barring a major collapse from Sivas or Besiktas it would appear that one of those two will claim the SuperLig this season. CimBom still has to play both of these teams so although we are unlikley to be kings this season we certainly still have a chance to be a kingmaker.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

So as expected the TFF punisehd Galatasaray excessively after the Derby match. Having provided a referee who allowed blatant assault on GS players to the extent that a Emre was sent off because he got in the way of Luganos headbutt, thats the only reason I can think off, the Club Chairman has now been banned for 45 days, and we have to play one match behind closed doors and one home match away from Istanbul. Of course the Kadikoy mob were not penalized for their part in all of this other than a paltry fine. I recall a couple of seasons ago when GS fans were stabbed and assaulted in Kadikoy, smoke bombs thrown at Mondragon etc. and what the TFF do.......nothing. Nice and consistent there then.

Also could somebody please explain how and why Sabri has been banned for 2 matches, he can be irritating but was not sent off. I have to say that the 3 match ban for Arda is probably a good thing as he was not playing particularly well anyway and a spell on the sidelines may do him some good.Anyway todays match was a relatively queit affair settled by one piece of quality play between Nonda and and Baros and takes us up into 4th place.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Lets start with the referee, not because I want to pick on him but just as a place to start. The Husband was watching the game with me and as early as the 15th minute he had picked up on the fact that the referee was being extremely tolerant of some poor tackling. For example as early as the 12th minute Semih had taken one of the GS Players out about 5 minutes after the ball had been played and although the free kick was awarded there was no yellow card. Whilst I am all for free flowing matches this was not the one to try it in because it was not until the 90th minute that Semih finally was booked for his 5th or 6th very late tackle. As the Husband said, if that was the Premier League he would have been booked for the first one, so the ref could set a standard. Instead worse and worse tackles were tolerated all evening which culminated in the events in the 93rd minute. Of course I am biased but FB should have been reduced to 10 men when Selcuk kicked Umit straight in the face, if you think this was nothing then you were obviously not watching the Everton - Villa match where a penalty was awarded for less than that. Given he had just been booked he should have walked but again the referee was very lenient. Its not that he was biased to FB its just that he lost control of the match, I mean when Sabri and Emre were strangling each other they should have both been red carded but again just yellows.

Now for the players. Neither set of players were very professional. Their actions in the last minute were ridiculous and one or two of them I am sure will be banned for considerable lengths of time, Lugano should just be thrown out of the country or sent to a psychiatric hospital he is a crazy eyed psychopath, Arda should be banned for the rest of the season and I hope the GS board decide to not pay him either and the same for Semih. I was not quite sure why Emre got the red card, after being head butted, then dropped with a right hook from Lugano and then stamped on I would have been upset so his ban should be a couple of games as he was pretty much the innocent party in all of that. These players and Arda and Semih especially are on posters pinned on kids walls and they should be deeply ashamed and embarrassed about their actions. I hope Fatih Terim is also told to drop them from the National Squad for a couple of matches, they really don't deserve anything else.

I am sure that the TFF will also punish GS for the fans behavior but they should take a long hard look at the referees performance before they point the finger elsewhere. Also when your player is clearly headbutted but no action is taken its no wonder that they get frustrated.

As for the match well Kewell apart there was no real quality on display, just spiteful tackling and a lack of creation. In the first half CimBom consistently opened up FB on their left hand side, Kewell and Sabri exposing Roberto Carlos time and time again but the last ball was always a bit hurried or off. Kewell had a couple of chances as did Baros although even he had scored it would have been offside! Second half was more even although over all I think GS were the better team. However the match clearly showed why the two teams are 4th and 5th and probably out of the championship. GS desperately need a holding midfielder and Arda needs to stop pretending to be Hasan Sas, you know run forwards, stop, run back and pass sideways. Of course he is not really fast enough to play as a winger. As for the rest of the squad, its promising I believe there is a strong backbone of young Turkish players who with the addition of a couple more defenders and a holding midfielder will be a good team.

Monday, April 06, 2009

So after the excitement of watching Turkey lose twice in 5 days to Spain, the second time thanks to Mike Riley we had a Monday match to look forward to.

As is usually the case when the match is on TV in the US at 1pm on a Monday afternoon I missed the game so I cant really say too much except we won 1-0, Milan Baros scored and Lincoln was not even on the bench.

I know that there should be respect for the coach but Bulent's treatment of Lincoln is somewhat childish as is Lincolns stance. They should both grow up and work towards a successful outcome. Currently we are six polints behind Sivas who appear unstoppable but all it may take is one loss and a draw and assuming we beat them in the last match we could be champions but gthen so could Besiktas, Trabzon or the others. Its very tight at the moment although Trabzon have the smell of a team past their sell by date and are sliding.